Presidential Election - Opportunity for cheap publicity or ego massage?

 Some of us may recall the Slipper man in past GEs. He was an unassuming man, wearing T shirt and slippers and putting himself up as a candidate in the GE. Could not figure out what was his motivation, but the law permits every citizen the right to nominate himself as a candidate as long as he is not of bad character, not unsound mind, or a criminal or some lesser conditions. There was also another guy, something like a 'parrot' man, with a parrot on his shoulder, also in the fray.

Many took them lightly, probably jokers or mentally challenged, or perhaps they thought they were good enough and stood a chance, with some luck, to be successful in the election. Some thought they were naive or just messing with a serious democratic process. Or could they be in just for just cheap publicity or attention?

The strict criteria for the EP, actually not just strict, but prohibitive criteria that angels would not even qualify, unless the angel is rich and powerful, have one positive effect, to rule up charlatans and jokers from nominating themselves as EP candidates. But the elitist terms have ruled out many good men and women that could easily do the job of the EP without any difficulties, and would also allow more good men and women to make themselves available, to give the people a better choice, to give every citizen an equal chance, equal right, to be the EP.

Putting the bizarre terms aside, the number of eligible candidates is now limited to a very exclusive few individuals deemed to be good enough to be the EP by the ruling party, and ordinary citizens with lesser means were not. The picture becomes very simple and clear when less than a handful of candidates are on the nominated list and comparison of who is the better candidate can be quite obvious. This is in another way like the saying, in the land of the blind, the one eyed Jack shines. 

With a very good candidate like Tharman being thrown in by the government, the alternative candidate would have to be someone as good as him in many areas to stand a chance to beat him. When George Goh offered himself, there is still some semblance of a chance that he could win, on a one versus one basis. George's credential may not be as illuminating as Tharman's, but 50:50, anything can happen. Then Ng Kok Song appeared. This quickly reduces the odds for George and both would be seen to be contesting against the government's candidate Tharman. The votes against the government candidate would be diluted and Tharman's chance would increase.

Any candidate coming in after George and Kok Song would only ensure that Tharman would win, unless this candidate is so outstanding that he would overshadow George and Kok Song. Anyone that is at best the equals of George and Kok Song would further wither down the votes and their own chances as well. It is like coming in to spoil the party. Any reasonable man would know this. 

What is the purpose of someone that is obviously not an outstanding candidate and still wanting to come into the fray as the fourth, fifth, sixth or seventh candidate? Is there any good reason to do so other than being deluded, or a personal quest, ego, fantasy, or some publicity to boot as a presidential candidate after the event? For whatever personal reasons, candidates adding to the pool would not only affect the chances of serious and better candidates. It also deprives the people from getting the better candidate of their choice.

Hypothetically, no matter how good Tharman is, if the people wants a non PAP candidate, there is a chance for a non PAP candidate to be elected if it is 1:1 or at worst 1:2 fight. Anything more would destroy whatever slim chances for an upset. In a 1 versus 3 fight, we have seen what happened before. The people were angry at the missed opportunity to put Cheng Bock in the Istana. And we are going to see the fiasco repeating again this time.

We can understand that everyone eligible should have his right to nominate himself as a candidate. We also understand that everyone thinks very highly of himself or herself.  We also understand that there is an element of luck or accident to happen. But the probabilities are real and difficult to change.

With all due respect to Tharman, if another candidate is to beat him, the chances for that to happen would be a 1:1 contest. Anything more would be in Tharman's favour. Let's hope that on nomination day, only one candidate other than Tharman, would be left to contest the election. We have at least two to date. Let's hope commonsense and the public good would convince the other hopeful candidates to make a wise decision to withdraw from the fight and make the election a serious election for the best candidate to be the EP, not for someone to enjoy the limelight for the sake of being under the limelight, without any hope of winning, but to undermine the chances of another good candidate having an even chance of winning against Tharman, and a non PAP or less politically tainted man becoming the next EP.

We do not want to see a 4 corner fight again. It is irresponsible for this to happen for people to put their self interest ahead of national interest, to turn the Presidential Election into a personal roadshow at the expense of the common good of the people and country.

Step aside USA and China! The moon now belongs to India.

 Too late for the USA to re-conquer the moon. According to Indian sources, Indians have taken over the top spot in the moon race. They have conquered the moon, LOL. China also went to the moon, but never claimed to have conquered the moon. Step aside USA and China! The moon now belongs to India.

As an attempt to instil fear and prevent others from finding out their fake moon landing, should others fail to find evidence of their fabricated visit to the moon, the USA even cooked up the story that they met Aliens on the moon, who warned them, just like long time friends, not to go there again. The funny part of this story is, after being warned about not going there again, the USA claimed they made several other later trips to the moon, presumably to visit old friends, the Aliens. It may need a nuclear scientist to figure out the real reason. The other funny part of that story was that there were little fanfare and ego in the MSM boasting about those later trips. Why?

The fact was that that fake moon landing was staged to pre-empt the Soviets from going there before them, as the first man in space had already been won by the Soviets. They could not face the reality that the Soviets were about to win the moon race as well.

This is also the reason why the USA dropped the two atomic bombs on Japan, to show the world that they are ahead of the Soviet Union as a nuclear power, with both striving for that mention in the history books. The nuking of Hiroshima and Nagaski were basically to test the bombs on the Japs. In reality, Japan was already on the downfall after being overstretched all over Asia, logistically and in manpower as well, and the two bombs were unnecessary, but deviously touted and construed as instrumental to be used to prevent further loss of personnel should the war continues.

Germany, the other member of the Axis Powers together with Italy, had already then fallen under the Soviet meat grinder. Japan, Germany and Italy had earlier signed a pact that formed the Tripartite Axis Powers against the Allies, with ambitions to control the world. They failed.

Anonymous

Foxconn expanding in India with a US$600 million investment in Karnataka? Foxconn denied.

 Foxconn is still intent on expanding in India with a US$600 million investment in Karnataka. It is basically throwing good money after bad! Apple and Foxconn's problems in India was all about being able to find skilled workers for its ventures in India and how are they going to overcome this is a mystery?

TSMC already faced skilled workers problem in Arizona, having to move skilled workers from its Taiwan base, only to find itself trying to solve the issue by putting a square peg into a round hole. Taiwanese and USA workers are on a different planet in working attitudes. Foxconn could do the same by transfering skilled workers from Taiwan or China, but would the mainland Chinese workers want to move to India? Moreover, the work attitudes of Chinese and Indian workers will not click. One is hardworking, while the other is laid back and slow moving like the Indian Government.

In any case, moving big back to China for Foxconn is not going to be a welcoming move by the Mainlanders now, and perhaps not a face saving one as well. Others have taken over the void. Luxshare Precision Industry Co. Ltd, a Chinese company has already been appointed as Apple's iPhone assembler in China. Chinese skilled workers of Foxconn who were laid off earlier have probably been absorbed elsewhere by now and will not be coming back, knowing the uncertainties. New Chinese start ups with skilled workers are probably waiting by the sidelines to fill the void left by Foxconn. 

Anonymous

Who has been benefiting from the misery of EU de-industrialisation?

 China must adopt the paramount mindset of looking after its own interests first. China must not follow the EU, blindly being waylaid by looking after the interest of the USA by following its dictates in the Ukraine War. The biggest folly of the EU was antagonising Russia by following sanctions instigated by the USA, even to the extent of hollowing out its own manufacturing base, now due to unavailability of cheap Russian energy.

Who has been benefiting from the misery of EU de-industrialisation? The USA of course, by killing the Nord Stream pipeline's operation, and opening up the EU energy market instead to mainly expensive USA linked energy suppliers. Companies moving to USA with the Inflation Reduction Act, a sinister measure meant to lure EU companies to relocate to the USA was the other vile motive. The EU is paying the ultimate price.

Of course China also benefits, with many EU businesses moving to China for example, to take advantage of the cheaper energy environment and the important Chinese market. But why are the EU countries complaining mostly about the 'Inflation Reduction Act' as an attempt to de-industrialise Europe and not protesting against China even with companies moving over there?

China never had to resort to unfair trade practices like the 'Inflation Reduction Act', unlike what the USA does, just to musk its sinister motives. China never forced BASF or Airbus to relocate their main or expanded production lines to China. Everything was voluntarily done, with even the CEOs of those companies, not to mention Olaf Scholz and Emmanuel Macron, flying all the way to China together with them to ink those deals.

This is also just the exact motive of the Chips and Science Act enacted principally to cripple China's technology sector from overtaking the USA. The Chips4 Alliance was formed to enhance sanctions against China, which some analyst are saying will only work on paper. Now we can see why it will not work, with China restricting rare earth elements and export of important technology.

This may sound odd, knowing that China was never thought of as being in the forefront of technological innovation in the past. But over the years, China has overtaken the USA in the field of high tech patents and scientific papers, and you can be sure there are important sectors that China is now ahead and therefore necessary to keep them away from the West.

China's retaliation could be argued as telling the USA and the West that China is no longer going to be the punching bag of the USA and the West, just like the Brits and Poles are now telling the Ukrainians that it is exhibiting ungrateful behavior for all the help given to it so far. It is as if Ukraine is the most important country for Nato, and demands support from everyone without gratitude. Russia helped the EU countries, particularly Germany and France to industrialise and become what they are today (not tomorrow), but that has also been repaid with ingratitude. Countries are now realising that enough is enough.

Anonymous

NASA - Why America wants to go to the moon? The answer is as cute as a pre school child's reply

 

9 minutes of American stupidity and lies that baffle even children. Why are the Americans panicking and desperately wanting to 'return' to the moon? Let's put aside the joke that they claimed they had been to the moon many times but now unable to do so and have to reinvent the wheel all over again.

In the 60s the Americans were on a space war with the Russians, trying to prove who was technologically superior, and going to the moon, landing on the moon, was the main reason to do so. The Americans did not know what they want to do should they land on the moon. That was why the astronauts that supposedly landed on the moon were having a great time tumbling and jumping around like little kids, not professionally trained specialists with very important tasks to accomplish. Because their mission was simple to prove that they were more superior to the Russians. Once there, they won, mission accomplished. They could not be blamed for lying down to have a sunbath on the moon.

The story, the Americans landed on the moon ahead of the Russians and followed up by a few more trips. But after 50 years, nothing concrete or useful came out from their moon landings. So they abandoned the idea of going to the moon completely. It was a meaningless and clueless mission to the moon. But they won the psychological war with the Russians, they were better than the Russians. So they bragged. And the whole world believed so.

By the way, the Americans claimed to have brought back several hundred kilos of moon rock. Again nothing useful came out from these so called moon rocks except to be gifts or souvenirs for state dignitaries. Their values were as good as rare stones. Totally of no scientific value.

Then China brought back the real stuff, samples from the surface of the moon. Again the Americans panicked. Please let us have some samples to test. What, didn't the Americans have hundreds of kilos in their possession? The Chinese made many breakthrough discoveries from what they brought back. New metals, and water! Water was not discovered or present in the American 'moon rocks'! Make your guess, where the Americans got their 'moon rock' samples from.

After sleeping for 50 years, neglecting or forgetting that there is a moon and there are scientific and economic values on the moon, the Americans panicked again. They want to go 'back' to the moon, just like they want to be interested in the Pacific Islands, not because they have good scientific reasons to be there. They have the same reason as in the 60s. The Chinese want to go to the moon, so they must beat the Chinese to it to prove to the world that they can do it. Such ingenious reasons to go to the moon. They just want to beat the Chinese to be there first, forgetting that they were there first in the 1960s. What is there to prove, unless they had not been there.

What were the reasons for the Chinese to be on the moon? No, they are not going there to prove that they can be there ahead of the Americans. The Chinese have many good reasons to be there, to build a moon base station, to explore and exploit the minerals on the moon, some with potential as huge energy sources, and materials to benefit mankind. They are not going to the moon to jump and tumble and be hysterical like little clueless kids. But the Americans are still going to the moon to earn the bragging right to say they are there ahead of China. What a joke, spending hundreds of billions to behave like naive overgrown kids.

China plans for a moon base in 2028 and landing man on the moon by 2030. The Americans are pushing their time table forward, to land man on the moon by 2025 or 2026.  So clever. Good luck. This time there is no Hollywood to help as the world has advanced technology to monitor everything that is happening throughout the whole journey, not depending on American broadcast from Hollywood.